Alonso said he drove most of the race at only 90%..... Do you believe him? Maybe a bit of gamesmanship going on here? Will seems to think he was going 101% the whole race, or at least till the very last couple of laps..... F1 is a mess these days..... it's so close to a spec series that it isn't funny, and the forced competetiveness strangles invention at every turn. At the same time it rakes in more money than ever......I think that's mostly because nothing else really challenges it.....there's nothing else (car racing wise) that's as well supported, publicized or commands the same amount of media attention as it does. Maybe Le Mans, but that's one race a year, same with Indy. I don't think it can continue much longer like this, in fact I think if Bernie steps down or dies, the whole thing may just collapse in on itself.
Yeah, well Bernie's days could soon be numbered. Full Story at Bernie Ecclestone’s future as F1 supremo may soon be decided - FT.com
GP2 and GP3 seem more like old F1 racing, sadly there's not a lot of coverage for that. I did watch Sky's coverage of the Bahrain race and it was pretty exciting. No pit stops, half the race length, and some good wheel to wheel racing. The tires are different too, and are designed to wear over the course of the whole race but not degrade to undrivability. The drivers do have to cope with less grip at the end, but not nearly to the same degree as in F1. I wish it was easier to watch more of those races. [edit = didn't realize the cars are all identical. Still, it was fun to watch the Bahrain race and I wouldn't mind seeing more]
After the first couple of laps at 100% I think Fernando dialed it back & only went fast enough to ensure the top step of the podium.
Making a plan and sticking with it: How Ferrari and Lotus came out on top in Spain Full article with charts and graphs - Making a plan and sticking with it: How Ferrari and Lotus came out on top in SpainJames Allen on F1
Does any one remember Canada a few years ago when Schumi pushed hard, did 4 stops and won? It will be interesting to see if anyone just decides to go balls out and make the extra stops in Monaco.
We probably will, though there is another potential limiting factor for the longer, more abusive races. They only get so many sets of tires to use throughout a race weekend, and the harder they run, the more tires they need...I assume. Most drivers in Spain ran on at least one used set during the race. All of Raikkonen's 4 sets were used, Alonso and Massa each used 3 used sets (of 5), Vettel 2 (of 5). I'm sure none of those used sets had been heavily abused before the race but any team with a car that's easy on tires will not only be able to run longer in a race on less stops, they should also have the luxury of more unused tires to make it work. I hope they don't start running less during practice again and running even less during quali in order to preserve tires for these bolder race strategies.
Alonso and Webber sit down and chat [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2--FD1g0W34]BBC Sport F1 2013 - F1's Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber interview each other - YouTube[/ame]
This one just won't go away...maybe there's some truth to the rumors... Honda set to announce Formula 1 return (GPUpdate.net)
Is it too soon to create the F1 -2015 thread? Honda confirms 2015 F1 return as McLaren engine supplier (http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/107442)